The Ultimate Vegan Cheese Sauce

You’re going to want to put this luxurious vegan cheese sauce over everything.

And the best part is that it is allergy-friendly – no dairy, no tofu, no gluten, and NO cashews!

This was one of those weeknight throw-a-bunch-of-ingredients-together-and-see-what-happens recipes; I hadn’t prepared anything for dinner and arrived home feeling super hungry after being out all day. Pasta is one of my go-to meals on those types of days, and this quick vegan white sauce was the result of looking through my kitchen cabinets to see what could go with the pasta. I adapted this from my favorite Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce recipe, and the entire meal was done in barely more time than it takes to boil water.

My favorite comfort food is comfort food that takes longer to eat than to make ♥

Or you could serve yourself a giant bowl of this creamy and ultra velvety vegan cheese sauce and eat it with a spoon. Am I the only one who does this with cheese sauce?

You know how much I love giving options in my recipes! This vegan cheese sauce is no exception, and you have a few options here.

I developed variations both with and without nutritional yeast, because I know the ingredient isn’t always easy to find and that not everyone is a fan. If you’ve never heard of nutritional yeast, it’s something used quite often in vegan cooking because of its addictively cheesy taste.

To be clear, nutritional yeast does not taste exactly like cheese; it just has that same umami flavor.

(Umami—or savory—is one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.)

optional 2 tsp buttery spread or olive oil – I really like the rich depth of flavor this adds, especially if not using the cheese version

optional pinch turmeric, thyme, rosemary, etc.

Instructions

Drain and rinse beans if they are canned. Blend together all ingredients except cheese, either in a blender or with a hand blender. Transfer to a pot, and add the cheese, if using. Heat on low, stirring occasionally, until desired serving temperature is reached and optional cheese is melted. If serving with pasta, stir in cooked pasta at this time. Add more milk of choice if a thinner sauce is desired.

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Comments

Katie, Katie, Katie I <3 you!!!!
I have "followed" you (IG, Pin & online) for a couple of years now so when I saw your cookbook in Barnes & Nobles over the weekend I got plumb giddy! I literally squealed out loud and my husband said, "You act like she's a real friend of yours". I did not let him shatter my bubble, I simply stated "I've been close to her for yearZZZ" 🙂

THANK YOU for this recipe! I got put on a restrictive diet that has no gluten, dairy, or tomato…. left me with no pasta sauce to speak of and so many recipes were loaded with high calorie, high fat ingredients like ground nuts and coconut milk. This was creamy and smoky and wonderful!

I love your recipes, adore your site. Except that annoying popup that keeps wanting me to sign up to receive your recipes. I already signed up several years ago.

So, I do have a question. Do you cook beans from dry? And lentils? Everytime I make one of your recipes, I have to look up how much dry it is to make the amount requested in the recipe. It would be so helpful if that was included right there in the recipe!

I do love your site. Thank you so much for these recipes. They help us all eat healthier. Including desserts!

This was great! I used pinto beans since that was what I had on hand, along with the nutritional yeast option, olive oil, and unsweetened coconut milk beverage. I did add a bit more salt and garlic powder. We had this mixed in with rice pasta, and topped with a little ketchup. YUM! Both my kids gobbled up two helpings, and I thought it was excellent too! My kids are used to having real cheese on their macaroni, but I am trying to reduce our intake of milk fat. They had no idea there was no actual cheese in here! This went over much better than another “macaroni and cheese” recipe I’d tried with butternut squash as the base for the sauce.

I cannot say enough good things about this sauce, just made it last night and I’m already addicted! Its so easy to make, I used nutritional yeast and left out the vinegar, and its was so good! Now my go-to sauce, I want to make it again tonight 🙂

Super quick. Easy to clean up. I blended up the cheese while the pasta was cooking, and the timing worked out pretty well.

The dish looks AMAZING, and the consistency is pretty on point in my opinion, only thing I would suggest is throwing some broccoli or (if you eat meat) hot dogs or something just to give it a bit more flavor. I’m not sure if I did something wrong but mine tastes kinda bland and I followed everything step by step.

I’ll DEFINITELY use this in the future, just gotta add some broccoli and I think I’ll be good 🙂 Thank you thank you!

I hate to be the one party pooper here but I thought this was really gross. I’m usually okay eating pretty much anything and will generally eat things even if I don’t like them, but I had to throw the entire batch out. 🙁 I had high hopes based on all the other comments!

Very disappointing. Tasteless and bland, but somehow with a gross aftertaste. NOT mac and cheese, not even close. Not a fan. I was quite disappointed, as I have tried other great recipes from this blog!

If you taste the beans, did you drain and rinse them well enough? Beans, themselves, shouldn’t have an aftertaste. You can always use cooked-from-dried beans if you want to be sure you don’t get a canned taste, but if you rinse well enough then that shouldn’t be a problem anyway.